When Rick Got A Clue
by ForeverLilacLies
Summary: “You brought me mushrooms?” Negan tilted his head back, looking surprised. Rick nodded, shuffling almost self consciously, realizing that he had been holding his breath when he couldn’t breathe. The older man laughed, crossing his arms over his chest. “That’s awfully sweet of you, Rick. I could just eat you up.” Negan drawled, offering the man a slow grin, dark eyes sparkling. He w


In the months following Negan killing Alpha things in Alexandria had begun to change. More specifically, things between Negan and Rick began to change. Negan hadn't been completely accepted into the fold and he had stuck to Rick as if Rick was his only friend. It was as close as he was ever going to get to a friend in Alexandria. Rick hadn't had it in him to push him away. Not after everything he had done.

It had started out small. Negan would bring Rick trinkets that he gathered while scavenging, Rick would bring Negan food when he knew the man was running low. Negan began to stay for dinner and play with Judith. Judith adored the man. Negan and Carl would go on runs together and Carl always came back in good spirits. Like it had been with him and Michonne.

Seeing the two of them together made Rick's chest feel warm. Negan could offer Carl companionship that Rick couldn't as his father. Rick had begun to appreciate Negan and the effort he put in with both Carl and Judith. Eventually, Negan moved in all together, the cabin now used as a get away. There was safety in numbers, Rick had used as an excuse when Daryl had stopped by and discovered that Negan was within the walls.

Rick realized he was in trouble the day Negan had found a light up toy for Judith and presented it to her when he next visited. The excited peal of laughter Judith had released as she took the toy into her chubby little hands had stuck with Rick. The smile on Negan's face had as well.

It wasn't that Rick had trouble finally accepting he might like Negan. It was more of the fact that he didn't know how to say it. He didn't know how to flirt. In school he had been so bashfully uncoordinated when it came to pretty girls or handsome boys that he couldn't even speak clearly. Shane had tried to be his wingman at first before realizing how hopeless Rick really was.

He was still baffled that Lori had even taken him seriously after he had stumbled over his words talking to her and instead of saying that she had pretty eyes, he had simply informed his future wife that she did indeed have eyes.

Jessie had been a fluke. Both of them had sort of stumbled into something they should't and Rick's motivation had been to get her and her boys away from her husband and somehow, they had clicked. He had even had a short lived crush on Michonne. She was strong, kind and the kids adored her. It seemed like an obvious step that they be together, but Rick was quick to discover that his feelings for Michonne were much more on the friendship side of things.

Now there was Negan.

Rick didn't even want to think about the damn rollercoaster that had been their relationship. There had been too much death and pain, but somehow, Rick's breath still caught in his throat when Negan turned those hazel eyes on him.

So, even years after leaving high school behind him, Rick still had no idea what he was doing. Michonne of course knew of his problem and had told him to make his feelings known. Whatever that meant.

Rick had somehow managed to prepare dinner for them when Carl was supposed to be out with Enid, only the two of them showed up because it was raining too heavily outside to do anything. Rick couldn't try saying anything to Negan with his son sitting right there, inhaling the casserole like it was going out of style.

When Negan had offhandedly mentioned he was running low of mulch, Rick had made sure to seek more out while scavenging and brought them to Negan. "Thanks, Rick!" Negan had crowed, taking the bag into his arms with glee, glancing at the sunflowers he was trying to grow. "I see you with your southern hospitality. Makes me all warm and fuzzy."

"You mentioned needing some." Rick mumbled, shuffling his feet, his shirt feeling stifling on his skin.

"And you remembered! That's awful sweet of you." Negan winked at Rick who practically choked on his spit.

"No problem." Rick managed to wheeze, making a hasty exit.

Another day, Negan was outside rummaging through the gardening tools when Rick approached. Rick leaned against the porch railing, watching Negan. He pictured how Shane used to flirt, but found that too awkward so instead thought of how Jesus had flirted with Aaron. That was more acceptable. Rick moved his arm, hip pressed against the railing and head tipped to the side, attempting to look to be the picture of relaxation. Negan had yet to notice him, head practically under the porch as reached for the rake kept beneath there.

"Negan." Rick greeted and Negan jolted, the back of his head smacking the low bar of wood with an audible thwack.

"Ow, shit!" Negan cursed, hand darting to the back of his head.

"Dammit, I'm sorry." Rick leaped down the steps to help Negan as the man pulled from under the porch, squinting and rubbing the back of his head.

"'S'nothing," Negan waved him off, still touching his head. Rick knelt down, reaching and swatting Negan's fingers away to check him over.

"You're bleedin." He observed, feeling both mortfied and guilty. Negan huffed, lightly brushing Rick's hand away.

"It's fine." He repeated, offering Rick his signature grin. "Don't you worry about little old me." He puffed out his chest, easily getting to his feet, only swaying a little bit.

Sometime after that Rick had made sure to make some noise while approaching Negan who was in the kitchen cooking something. He greeted him and leaned against the counter, head cocked.

"Mornin' Negan."

"Hey, Rick." Negan greeted, distractedly, moving the pan onto the burner. Rick could smell bacon sizzling on the pan. Judith and Carl were both still asleep. Rick lightly jutted out his hip, watching Negan from under his eyelashes. Negan continued cooking, not noticing Rick.

"You cook often?" Rick asked, eyes straying towards the window, noting the bright blue skies outsides. Negan hummed.

"A lot more recently. Not so much when I ran...well back in the day." Negan cracked an egg into the pan. Rick nodded, fingers gliding over the countertop and through something sticky that he suspected was the jelly from Carl's sandwich a couple days ago. He wiped his fingers on his jeans, silently shuddering.

"You're a really good cook." He finally spoke up again and Negan laughed, glancing over his shoulder to the younger man.

"You trying to butter me up so I give you the best slice of bacon, cause it's working." His grin was contagious and Rick smiled back, eyelashes fluttering. "You got something in your eye?" Negan asked, pushing the pan back with a frown. Rick dropped the pose with a silent curse.

"Still adjusting to the light." He mumbled out and Negan nodded in understanding. Another time Rick had met Negan on the porch and had tried to lean against it, only to miss the railing completely and fall into the bushes while Negan had cackled at him, helping him to his feet and brushing him off.

Rick gave up on the railing after that.

Rick tried to subtly compliment Negan's hair one night. Carl was sitting on the counter, eating another sandwich and reading while Judith sat in her booster seat playing with her own food. Rick was cleaning the counter while Negan threw cheerios at Carl's head. They bounced off his forehead, rolling across the hardwood floors.

"Fuck off." Carl swatted at his face while Negan chortled at him.

"Let's watch our mouths, Carl." Rick muttered, ringing the rag out in the sink while Negan cackled at the boy.

"Negan started it." Carl groused, catching a cheerio in his mouth and leering at the former Savior. Rick sighed, shaking his head.

"Negan started it." Negan repeated in a high falsetto. Carl shot Negan a scowl as Judith laughed in her chair.

"How old are you? Thought when guys hit sixty they stopped acting like that." Carl jumped off the counter, crunching several cheerios under his sneakers while Rick bowed his head in dismay.

"Big talk, kid," Negan jeered, popping a cheerio in his mouth. "I ain't even fifty."

That certainly sounded like a lie. Carl caught on very quickly. "Your hair says differently."

"You wish you had hair like mine." Negan ran a large hand through his hair, tosling it into attractive disarray. There was silver lining his temples and around his hairline. It was very attractive. Silver would look good on Negan.

"I think he means your hairline." Rick said without thinking. Carl squawked out a laugh while Negan's mouth fell open. Rick quickly realized how that had sounded.

"My hairline isn't fuckin' receeding." Negan touched his hair almost self consciously. Carl continued to laugh at him, shooting his father a grin. Rick floundered on how he could respond.

"Fuck." Judith's little voice suddenly spoke up, silencing the room. Rick turned towards his daughter in dismay. "Fuck!" She shrieked little fists in the air with cheerios stuck to her hand and cheek. Rick could hear Negan and Carl cackling behind him and he turned towards them, silencing them with a look.

"I'll clean the floor." Carl muttered, awkwardly dropping down and fumbling with the crushed cheerios.

"I'll...go...brush my hair." Negan inched towards the bathroom before darting inside and slamming the door behind him.

"Fuck!" Judith declared again and Rick silently had to agree.

One evening, when the kids were all asleep a group of the adults had taken out drinks and games, sitting around a bonfire. Negan had been invited as Anne's guest, even though she paid no attention to him, spending her time with Michonne. They had all drank, warming their hands around the fire. Arat was sitting with Tara and Rosita, the three of them huddled together all sharing a bottle of wine. Arat had nodded to Negan who winked at her, teeth gleaming as he offered her a grin. Rick was sitting beside Aaron and Jesus who were very much focused on each other.

Rick glanced up from his bottle, watching as Negan tried to make himself comfortable. Rick was relieved that most of the Alexandrians were moving on from the Saviours. Jesus had even handed Negan a glass of whiskey which the man had accepted with gusto. He observed how Aaron and Jesus flirted and how Rosita spoke to Arat and Tara. She touched her hair, twirling the ponytail through slender fingers. Rick self consciously touched his curls, which had begun to grow long and wild again.

Poor Eugene was already too far gone and was in the lawn chair beside Rosita, snoring deeply, not noticing as both Rosita and Tara took turns poking his cheek. Michonne had looked up, eyes darting from Rick to Negan and to Jesus who was sniggering into his own glass of whiskey. When Rick caught her eye, she inclined her head towards Negan, full lips twitching in obvious mirth. The man was drinking quietly, listening to Arat as she spoke about a recent scavenging trip.

'Do something.' Michonne mouthed. Rick desperately wished he knew what that something was. Michonne kept staring Rick down until he felt like he had to stand up and do something. He stood, telling Aaron that he would be back soon, heart hammering in his chest. Negan's hazel eyes slowly lifted, staring at Rick as he took a swig from the glass, never breaking eye contact.

When Rick had tried to actually step towards Negan he had tripped over his own feet with Aaron managing to steady him before he face planted. Negan shot to his feet almost instantly and Aaron helped Rick back to his feet.

"Maybe you had a bit too much to drink?" Aaron had offered. Rick could have kissed him. He avoided Negan's eyes, allowing Aaron and Jesus, who was pretty far gone himself to shuffle him back to his house, Michonne grinning like an asshole the entire time.

Rick hadn't been drinking that night.

Negan needed mushrooms for his tomato sauce. Negan was an amazing cook and never wasted an opportunity to show it off. He grew the tomatoes in the gardens outside and Rick supplied the basil and onion and Michonne had taken to planting garlic and often traded the excess for Rick's carrots. Negan and Rick had taken to gardening together and Rick had painstakingly shown Negan when the best time to pick the tomatoes was.

"A little bit of yellow around the stem is fine," Rick had explained, handing a ripe tomato to Negan who rolled it around his his hand, long fingers stroking over the red flesh.

"Feels ripe." Negan had agreed, meeting Rick's eyes as he brought the tomato to his mouth and took a bite. Rick sighed, rubbing his dirt stained palm against his jeans.

"You're never gonna have enough for your sauce if you keep eatin' them." He chided, watching as Negan's tongue darted out to swipe a piece of tomato at the corner of his mouth. Rick flushed and the former Savior grinned, teeth sharp and gleaming.

"You want a bite, Rick?" He offered the tomato to Rick, nearly brushing the man's lip with them, still grinning at him.

Rick shook his head. "I'm not hungry. Thanks though." He went back to looking at the tomatoes as Negan sighed deeply. It was left at that.

Rick had left Judith with Aaron for a playdate with Gracie and had gone to the edges of their territory to find the particular mushrooms Negan used, gathering as much as he could into his knapsack and punching a stray walker in the face as it had lumbered towards him.

He brought them back to the house and found Negan sitting on the porch, watching him like a hawk with an odd expression on his face that Rick couldn't place. His face had smoothed out into a lazy grin as Rick approached.

"Hey sheriff, was wonderin' when you'd come back." Negan greeted. Rick hummed in greeting. There was dirt on Negan's cheek and a sunflower sat in a pot beside Negan.

"You mentioned wantin' to gather mushrooms for your pasta sauce, so I…" Rick trailed off, feeling awkward holding the mushrooms out like some kind of offering.

"You brought me mushrooms?" Negan tilted his head back, looking surprised. Rick nodded, shuffling almost self consciously, realizing that he had been holding his breath when he couldn't breathe. The older man laughed, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's awfully sweet of you, Rick. I could just **eat** you up." Negan drawled, offering the man a slow grin, dark eyes sparkling. He was looking at Rick with that odd expression again. Rick couldn't place it. His breath caught in his throat, nearly choking him and in an instant he lobbed the armful of mushrooms at Negan's face.

"Ahh, shit!" Negan sputtered as the mushroom smacked him in the face. Rick was already gone by the time Negan was done getting the dirt out of his eyes. The next day the sunflower was left on the kitchen table. When Enid came by to see Carl she mentioned how pretty the color was. Rick had readily given it to her, knowing Negan would approve.

A couple days later he went to see Michonne, who had wasted no time in asking him if he and Negan had 'Gotten your heads out of your asses and kissed already.'

"I don't think he wants me like that." Rick replied, feeling an odd sort of sadness in his chest at admitting it. He heard his friend let out a low laugh.

"Sometimes you're so damn stupid, Rick Grimes." Michonne huffed, lifting a hand to cut off Rick's rebuttal. "Anyone with sense knows that Negan's got it bad for you. Has had it bad for you for a long time. Everyone but you it seems."

"But he ain't sayin' anything, Michonne." Rick argued, rubbing his hands down his face in frustration. "I try to give him hints and he doesn't seem to notice." He accepted the tea Michonne pushed over to him. The woman took a sip, eyes fixed on Rick over the rim of the cup.

"I can't imagine your hints are all that strong." Michonne observed with a teasing smile. "You don't know how to flirt worth a damn. You can't just drop hints and hope he bites."

"Then what do you suggest?" Rick asked, genuinely curious. Michonne set her cup down, drumming her slender fingers on the chipped coffee table.

"When you want something that badly, you can't just hope it will happen. You have to put effort into it." Michonne's dark eyes flickered to where Anne sat drawing on a pad of paper, lingering on her. The other woman seemed to sense her lover's eyes on her because she glanced up, sculpted brow arching as she regarded the other woman before returning to her sketching, a noticeable curve at the corner of her lips. Michonne turned back to Rick, hands curling around her cup. "You gotta be straight forward. No tiptoeing."

"No tiptoeing." Rick repeated.

Two days later, Carl was back on the road with Enid and Judith was down for her nap. Negan had just returned from a run and was on the couch sorting through the items he had found when Rick walked down the stairs.

"Hey Rick." Negan greeted, pushing the bag aside.

"Good run?" Rick asked, plopping onto the couch beside the older man. Negan nodded, handing Rick the battery pack he had found.

"Found this in a Home Depot. Along with some lumber. No one bothered taking that when they world went to shit. We'll have to go back for it though." Negan looked pleased.

"I can get a group together and we can head out early next week, once the last rotations are completed." Rick agreed, looking at the cans of paint Negan had lugged back.

"I even got you a little something." Negan nudged Rick who offered him a small smile.

"Did you?" He questioned and Negan rifled through the bag until he pulled out a pair of grey and green gardening gloves.

"It's nothing big. I know your last pair of gloves tore, so I found you a pair. They might fit you cause they were too small for me...but look," Negan turned the gloves over in Rick's hands so he could see the fingertips. "They got grips on it so they can't be punctured and they're longer so your forearms are protected."

"Thank you, Negan." Rick tried on the gloves, noting they were just a tad too long in the fingers, but were comfortable.

"It's nothing." Negan waved him off, ears a peculiar shade of pink. Rick looked at the gloves, recalling Michonne's earlier words. Negan slumped back on the couch, head tipped back and shoulders relaxed.

Oh what the **hell **.

Negan startled as Rick suddenly perched on his lap, arms wrapping around his shoulders. "Umm…" Negan gulped, dark eyes wide as they fixed on the younger man. Without warning, Rick tilted his head and connected his mouth with Negan's in a kiss, fingers stroking down his neck. For a split second Negan didn't react and the younger man internally panicked, thinking he had seriously miscalculated, when Negan's mouth began to move against his own, tongue stroking over his bottom lip before diving into Rick's mouth.

"I like you," Rick stated, as he pulled back for air, fingers twirling the hair at the base of Negan's head. "And I think you might like me too…" Negan dragged him in for another kiss, hands moving to Rick's hips and effortlessly lifting him so that Rick was now straddling him.

"You were flirting with me?" Negan's mouth moved to nibble at the skin below Rick's ear. Rick could feel Negan's erection poking at him from where he was straddling him and he did not doubt that Negan felt his own.

"Yeah." Rick tipped his head back. Negan kissed just as Rick had always thought he would, plundering and demanding and leaving Rick's skin feeling scorched.

"I've been trying to get a read on you for months , Grimes. Didn't want to push you into something you didn't want and this whole damn time you were trying to…" Negan nipped at Rick's lower lip. "That sunflower on the table was for you, you fucking prick." Negan swung Rick around as if he were weightless and Rick nearly started dry humping the man at the motion. Negan switched their positions so Rick was now lying on the couch with Negan looming over him, ever the big bad wolf.

"Oh." Was all Rick could manage to think to say, releasing a gasp at Negan tweaked at a nipple through his shirt, chuckling.

" **Yeah **, oh . Was that why you were fucking falling all over yourself these last few weeks?" Rick's lips were beginning to hurt, but he didn't care. If Negan stopped now, he probably would die .

"Yeah, I was tryin' to flirt." Rick attempted to defend himself and Negan laughed, his large hand moving to cup Rick's cheek. His thumb stroked gently over the scar under Rick's eyes, his hazel eyes warm and his voice oozing like honey. Rick could get lost in those eyes and he returned Negan's smile with one of his own.

"You suck at flirting." Negan responded fondly as he took Rick's face between his fingers and kissed him on the lips.

"Yeah." Rick readily agreed as Negan plundered his mouth again. "I fucking suck at it." Negan's responding cackle made it all worth it.


End file.
